This in from Carl Feeney on behalf of the Solent Tunnel PRO-LINK campaign. In his own words. Ed
On Wednesday last week (9th March 2016) PRO-LINK representatives, Kevin Price (Treasurer), Carl Feeney (Chair) and George Bristow visited Dr David Brown at the Infrastructure Research Group, Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, along with his undergraduate students at the University of Southampton.
Dr Brown had invited PRO-LINK to a presentation especially constructed for them by his students, which described their studies concerning an Isle of Wight fixed-link bridge.
Options debated
Having listened to the presentation both groups discussed the pros and cons of tunnel and bridge options and also of various location options.
Dr Brown and PRO-LINK were extremely pleased with the information and opinions gleaned from each party and communication will continue in the future with Dr Brown for expert advice. The students and Dr Brown informed the PRO-LINK representatives that through the surveys they’d done, they’d found an eight to one indicator of people in favour of the fixed link.
Presentation to tourism industry
The visit by invitation to the University comes just seven days after PRO-LINK made their own presentation to the Visit Isle of Wight tourism conference at Gurnard Pines on the Isle of Wight.
The presentation in front of 270 tourist business delegates concentrated on solely the tourist related features of a potential Isle of Wight fixed-link tunnel.
Kevin Price explained afterwards,
“David Thornton, CEO of Visit Isle of Wight, approached us to make the presentation because many of the tourist industries on the Island are now interested in the fixed link concept to allow ease of access for their customers.”
Carl also explained,
“A great deal of the tourist industry owners on the Island are worried about the future.
“The D-BID scheme that is being suggested appears to be not solving the main problem to the Island’s tourist industry. Ferry travel across the Solent in the summer holiday periods can be so expensive and unreliable that it becomes a deterrent to potential tourist visitors.
“PRO-LINK believes that long term, a fixed link tunnel will be the only way to assure success for the Island. Short term, the D-BID scheme seems to make sense in order to establish a centralised, time and finance efficient system to promote the Island.”
Carl finished by saying,
“David Thornton seems very capable and experienced and also quite obviously has an open mind to alternative ideas, hence his invitation to PRO-LINK for the presentation.
“A suggestion would be for Visit Isle of Wight and the Isle of Wight council to include PRO-LINK as consultants when discussing future Isle of Wight transport infrastructure and options on the future. This has already been mooted with the council. We are still waiting to hear back.”
